Oh, Barbie. It's a pretty iconic brand, but seems to have dropped out of the lime light recently, or perhaps thats just because I don't pay too much attention to the popularity of various childrens toys. I was an '80s child though and Barbie was all the rage when I was a little girl.
Barbie's new ad campaign for this season is very nostalgic, aiming at those fond memories women my age and a few years older have of playing with Barbies as children. Since those blissful days, Barbie has gotten a bit of criticism for its unrealistic proportions etc. Enough, perhaps, that women might now feel a bit guilty about giving a Barbie to their impressionable young daughters. Barbie seems to be combatting those thoughts with a heafty dose of nostalgia, and I for one, think it's working.
The commercials themselves aren't anything new, but the conversational stories and vintage footage of old Barbie Dream Houses worked like charm to bring back fond memories of playing with Barbies. I absolutely adored my flimsy cardboard and plastic Dream House, complete with modern '80s plastic furniture. All it needed was the Barbie Corvette...
The spots really would have made me consider giving my child a Barbie this Christmas, if I had children of course, but I am a 26 year old single woman without children though, so while I am the target age group, I'm not entirely their target audience. Are there any mothers out there for whom these spots evoked the same fond memories? Did they work?
2 comments:
I had the corvette (freaked our dog out all the time so I was limited where I could play with it), just not a dream house.
We could have teamed up together to play. Oh wait, only if you were year's older, or I was year's younger.
My best friend in elementary school had the Barbe Corvette. I was so jealous, but she often brought it over and we'd park it next to the Dream House. :)
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